I'm making a note here: Huge Success
Interview: Sean K Reynolds
 
[ N/A -> Interview ]
Interview posted by 2767 Tue 10 Aug 2004, 3:17 PM
1. Say the first thing that comes into your head when you read the phrase, 'ping pong'.

Forrest Gump.

2. Is it true that you just do one quest at a time in a town then move on, so as to mimic the back and forth motion of ping pong?

Lies, complete fabrications.

3. What was your favorite approach to Fallout? Fallout2?

The first time through I played a cautious, talky guy with the Fast Shot feat, but since then I've gone for the high-Int guy who focuses on the rifle, Science, and Steal good balance of sneakiness, combat ability, and know-how. Right now I'm playing a max-out LK female and trying to hit all of the special encounters.

4. You were lead story designer for Van Buren. Tell me, what differentiated the story from the previous 2 FO games, other than the obvious ping pong reference?

Well, first of all, you don't have any association with the Vault Dweller. You're just a guy who's been imprisoned, and you may not even know why, and instead of being chosen by your community's leader to go out into the world, you're broken out of prison and left to wander about without any immediate goal other than survival (toting a rivet gun and wondering when the robots are going to try to drag you back to the prison). So right from the start there is none of the "you are someone special, you have been chosen, you must save us" ... you're nobody special, you weren't chosen, and the only person you have to save is yourself. Or so you think.

Of course there are plenty of other things that set VB apart from FO1 and FO2, but without discussing the entire plot I can't really get into them all. Plus, I don't have access to the source files for the areas any more (::grumble::) so I've forgotten some of the details.

5. What was your favorite part of the story in Van Buren?

It's hard to pick out one specific thing, but if I just mention stuff in the areas I worked on: being able to redeem Kurisu and turn the Blackfoots around; the interaction between the Dome, truckers, and Jackals; the history of the Dog Town salvagers and NCR and how that relates to Hoover Dam....

6. What parts of the country does the player get to explore first hand in Van Buren? Also, would there be any references to other part's of the country, both those seen in FO/FO2 and other unseen parts?

It takes place in the American southwest (Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah) ... the westernmost sites on the game map are the easternmost borders of NCR, and problems with NCR have a lot to do with what's going on in the game. There are references to the midwest (for a while there was a significant faction from the midwest in the game, but when we realized the size and story had gotten too big we cut them out but left some links in to make an easier transition to FO4). In fact, one of the links is there because of the radioactive twisters Cassidy mentions in FO2.

7. What do you think about Bethesda's acquiring the Fallout licence? Where do you see the franchise going with Bethesda owning it?

I haven't played any Bethesda games in years, not because of any knock against Bethesda but because I don't have a PC and was playing more tabletop games. I don't really have an opinion of their games, their staff, or their management.

8. How do you feel about Werner Schlager winning the table tennis world championships?

I could take him.

9. What do you consider the 3 main elements of the Fallout setting?

I'd like to use Sawyer's definitions for this because I think he hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the concept docs for the game where he outlined all of his reasons for that. So, off the top of my head and after only five hours of sleep:

Post-apocalyptic with a 50s feel (really a multipart answer that affects so many aspects of the games that it should count for more than one a single person affecting great changes because of the choices they make and the fallout from those choices.

Dark humor (not forced humor, puns, in-jokes, or real-world references).

Subtle, sometimes cruel humor, whether in the PipBoy pictures, or Harold being a unique ghoul-like mutant that's neither a FEV-created super mutant or a radiation-created ghoul who's constantly sick and dying yet living forever, or the Master's success being his greatest failure, or the Vault Dweller getting denied the Vault after saving it and the world because he's a threat to its peace and stability.

10. What single element of Van Buren most set it as a Fallout game?

That a single person, stumbling along in the early part of the game with no true idea of what's _really_ going on, eventually connecting all the dots, influencing the outcome of various parts of the game world with their actions, and eliminating the true threat, sometimes at great cost to themselves.

11. There have been some criticisms levelled at Van Buren, such as the amount of technology in the game (space platforms, multiple vehicles), when many say that the setting should be as devoid of technology as possible. How do you respond to that?

First I'd say "compared to everyone in the BOS running around in power armor, or almost every super mutant armed with a heavy weapon, or the many other high-tech things in FO1 and FO2 that few people criticize?"

The game's set almost 250 years into the future ...if you don't have technology at least at the modern (21st-century level) it's going to look stupid, and unless you advance the technology in some way (even if only in a 50s idea of the future way) you're going to wonder why the technology stopped at the modern era.

Space stations? There are space stations in orbit right now; in the 73 years between now and the bombs dropping you'd think that there would be continued research in space exploration and habitation, especially as modern rockets don't even use petroleum fuel so the gas crisis of the mid-21st century wouldn't even apply to them (other than the need for petroleum to make plastics and such, which can be made from recycled plastics quite easily). This also isn't a bio-dome sort of space platform where you have a bunch of scientists living up there like a bunch of dirty hippies, it's ... well, let's just say it's a military platform, and it doesn't hold troops.

Vehicles? There are millions of cars on the road in California alone; it's absurd to think that a person with the know-how couldn't put together a working vehicle with the proper parts, especially givet the number of cars out there. Arizona census 2002 population is over 5,000,000 people ... if that's 4 people per household and 40% of households have at least 1 vehicle (also according to census data, which actually has 40% of households at 1 vehicle per, 38% at 1 vehicle per, 15% at 3 or more per), that's FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND cars in Arizona as of 2002. You don't think that in four states, maybe two million cars, there aren't four vehicles that Science Boy can't piece together?

We're not talking the 1800s where there was no existing body of scientific and technological work to build on. Innovation occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries without the benefit of 20th-century technology ... dynamite, handguns, and even machine guns were invented or became more common. Why couldn't innovation still occur in the 2200s when you have groups like the BOS preserving tech and records, ghouls (many of whom are scientists, or at least were around to see and use the technology and have an idea of how it works), and the Vaults preserving other aspects of technology? Not to mention Vault City and NCR which are living communities in contact with the outside world and with access to their full libraries....

We actually toned down (through Sawyer's heroic efforts) to make VB less tech-heavy. Ammo and working weapons are scarce. Armor is scarce. Almost every instance of a firearm you find in the hands of a non-BOS (or similar isolated organization with access to technology) is a pipe rifle or a zip gun. It's easy to point at the space station and the vehicles and cry foul, but it's actually much more low-tech than the previous FO games where guns quickly became "objects in my inventory that I don't need but are worth some money as soon as I find a store with enough caps to buy them from me."

12. As a whole, what do you think of the Fallout fan base?

Honestly? Many (if not most) of the ones that frequent the forums are rude, rabid, and happy to argue about tiny little details. They can agree on very few things and none of them can agree on everything, which makes it almost impossible for any computer game company trying to make a FO game to do so and make a significant proportion of the vocal online fanbase happy (whether it makes the nonvocal online fanbase happy or angry, or the offline fanbase happy or angry is much harder to say).

Given that, it's clear that they are fans of the titles, fans of the world, and fans of the game experience. I can always admire someone with that much passion for something, though I may envy that they have so much time to rant about it.

For the record, I don't think all the online fans are rude, rabid, and argumentative, nor do I think they're stupid (some of them are stupid, and some of them are very smart, just like any population). They're passionate, and I think they are justified in that passion.

13. What was the main plot of VB based on? Where there any changes you would have liked to have been made to that?

You're a prisoner who gets busted out, you don't really know where you are or why you were imprisoned. You wander around trying to find a place for yourself and a way to keep the prison robots from tracking you down. You keep running into some of the guys who busted you out of the prison. You find out that returning the other escaped prisoners is the way to get the robots off your back. You find out about NCR's problems, and a few things don't add up....

The final version of the storyline had already been revised a couple of times, and we were satisfied with the results (though disappointed about the stuff we had to cut).

14. Did VB plan to continue the Fallout tradition of odd random encounters?

If that you mean "special encounters," yes, though nothing like the Bridge Keeper or the Knights of the Round table.

15. Did Van Buren contain the key element of an RPG, having your actions affect the world? If so, list some of the things that you could do in the new engine.

Hell yes. There was "PC Town," a part of the Dam where you could direct the construction of different businesses and residences. You could set up a trade agreement between the Dam and the salvagers of Dog Town, trading medical supplies for valuable resource materials salvaged from the city. You could send the Hangdogs and Blackfoots to Dog Town to capture the wild dogs that have the run of the place (just look out for the CRB-S units!). And the choice of prisoners you decide to drag back to prison affects the areas in which they're hiding out....

16. What do you feel distinguishes table tennis from ping pong?

Ping-Pong is a trademarked brand name for table tennis games. :)

17. How did the slavery system work in VB?

Short form is that there is slaving going on, you could participate in raids or interrupt raids, you could bring slaves (including CNPCs) to places that buy them, and you can buy slaves in order to give them their freedom. As I said on NMA, toting around a passel of peasant slaves or ex-slaves is just going to get them killed because they suck in combat (anyone who doesn't suck in combat is going to be a CNPC with specialized and customizable AI), and because the game isn't about starting a farm or brahmin ranch there isn't much of a reason for you to tote them around for that reason. "Why don't you head off to the Dam?" is usually your best option. There are special skilled slaves whom you can free and say, "Why don't you head off to 'PC Town'?" and they'll actually show up there and help you build/upkeep/protect PC Town.

18. What was the reservation going to be like?

That was Foletto's area, and I'll let him talk about it if he wants to. I'll just say "old scientific research station," "ghoul sanctuary," and "two important projects."

19. If you had the opportunity to legally arrange anything at all unpleasant, but non lethal, for Herve Caen for cancelling VB what would it be?

Well, the guy still owes me money, so how about I just suggest he get locked up in a room with the Fallout fans for a while?

20. Tell us more about the PC-town area planned for VB.

That was Ferret's area, and I'll let him talk about it if he wants to. Basically it's a destroyed part of town that you can buy from the locals and build up to suit your own purposes. It could be a slum, middle-class, or really nice depending on who you send there and how much money you put into it.

21. Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about VB?

I think I've given you guys enough to talk about for now. However, I would like to clarify something: Though I've been perpetuating the joke, I don't really play ping-pong. Haven't played it in years. Not really interested in it. The constant plinking outside my office I was able to tune out, but there were some people (including some people whose value to the company I doubted) who got really loud and played more often than anyone else. Anyway, my point is that I'm not into ping-pong. Yes, it's funny to razz me about it, that's OK, but I was at work to get work done....

- Sean

==
seankreynolds.com
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